Pastor Picks Up Wife to Show Her Who’s Boss

In the ongoing battle for the title of the nation’s second most repulsive preacher (Fred Phelps is pretty much unbeatable in first place), Steven Anderson may have taken the lead over Terry Jones with a recent sermon explaining how he keeps his wife in her proper place by picking her up and carrying her across the room every morning. Hemant has the transcript:

It puts us in the right role of our marriage, showing, like, “Hey, I’m stronger than you. I’m the boss.”…

Right away, it’s a masculine thing. And it’s a feminine thing to be carried. Ok? So basically, what it is, is it’s putting us psychologically and mentally in our proper roles of husband and wife.

“Hey, I’m a man and you’re a woman! I’m gonna pick you up. I’m gonna carry you to that side of the house and carry you back.” Ok?

… I’m not saying this is a necessary part of your morning ritual, ok? I’m not saying, you know, you need to be just like me. But I’m just showing you that I’m taking a decisive action that says, hey, I want my marriage to be right. I want it to be spiritually right. I want God on my side. I want to have the wisdom of God from the Book of Proverbs. I want be in the spirit first thing in the morning. And I want to have a close relationship with my wife that is a Male/Female relationship, not this 50/50 relationship that’s garbage that our world puts out.

It’s a Male/Female relationship. I’m the man. You’re the woman. I’m gonna pick you up and show you that. And if I ever want you to go somewhere that you don’t wanna go, you know what? I’m just showing you, I have the power to pick you up and take you there.

… I’ll tell you right now, I’m not ashamed to preach that. Because, you know what? I have a good marriage.

He could use that exact same justification for getting up every morning and beating the hell out of his wife too. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising if he did, of course. Here’s the video:

I hope some power lifting homosexual physically picks him up someday and says, “You’re MY bitch now!”

glodson

What happens when he gets back problems from carrying his wife across the room? Does that mean she’s in charge? How about a blown knee?

Alverant

I wonder how he defines “a good marriage”. Maybe we should ask his wife to confirm (assuming stockholm syndrome hasn’t taken over).

Larry

I’m not so sure about being the 2nd most repulsive preacher, however. That dude in Indiana who convinced a 17 year old girl to fuck him because Jesus is a pretty strong contender. Anderson’s little ritual is just plain weird but it doesn’t actually harm anyone.

God wants you to demonstrate to your wife that her will is subject to yours.

That if what she wants and what you want conflict, yours are what matters.

Which means that there is no such thing as rape, because you want sex, and that’s what matters.

There’s no such thing as abuse, because you want things done, whether she wants to do them or not.

Women are not people; they are slaves. They belong to you, and if they defy you they can be punished.

Such is the will of God– remind your woman of it. Daily.

There’s no way in I’m going to watch that video, I’d be afraid I might hurl my monitor across the room.

(Because I’m strong enough. I’m in charge)

matty1

Gretchen, I hate to say it but that was actually common legal doctrine until well into the 20th Century in a lot of places. The wife was seen as an extension of her husband who could no more be punished for abusing her than for abusing his right arm.

Gretchen, I hate to say it but that was actually common legal doctrine until well into the 20th Century in a lot of places. The wife was seen as an extension of her husband who could no more be punished for abusing her than for abusing his right arm.

Abusing one’s spouse has been illegal in common-law areas since before Blackwell, though enforcement varied. A wife was indeed a legal extension of her husband, but this was about property and liability.

She’s completely insane and has taught her young children to denounce and rebuke the UNGODLY!

kemist, Dark Lord of the Sith

If I was his wife, I’d start my very own ritual of holding a knife to his throat every morning as he waks up to remind him that all humans are vulnerable when they sleep, no matter who’s “boss”.

Asshat.

DaveL

“Hey, I’m stronger than you. I’m the boss.”…

Because daily ritual intimidation is totally normal “boss” behaviour.

gingerbaker

What’s persuasive is that he picks her up and carries her around the room… on his cock.

Synfandel

Dude been reading too much John Norman.

Francisco Bacopa

If I was his wife, I’d start my very own ritual of holding a knife to his throat every morning as he waks up to remind him that all humans are vulnerable when they sleep, no matter who’s “boss”.

Such confrontations are risky. Poison is the way to go. Does he live in an area where there are oleander trees? Dose him with oleander sap and then cut his arm with oleander twigs. Tell the doctors at the ER you tried to convince him to go to the doctor after his arm became inflamed when he cut it on a branch he was pruning.

dugglebogey

What ratio do your God desire? 55-45? I’m thinking in his case it’s about 96-4, so long as the four are cooking, cleaning, laundry and child-bearing.

scottlesch

I noticed that Mrs. Anderson changed the “old Indian ” Daylight Sayings Time story to “Government” from “White Man.”

If you want to demonstrate to someone that you’re in charge, carrying them around is the wrong way to do it.

GAIUS: It sure is a great day to be a Roman Patriarch, eh Gaius*?

OTHER GAIUS: It sure is. Now I’m going to give my slave a piggy back ride to the market!

* A different one. It was a very common name.

arakasi

What he is really doing here is telling his wife ” I can overpower you anytime I want. Don’t even think about resisting, because I do whatever I want to you”

I give it 1 in 4 odds that he dies in his sleep with a steak knife in his throat.

thebookofdave

I think Pastor Anderson was revealing his personal spin on the old ‘Footprints in the Sand’ poem. The single set of prints wasn’t a gesture of support in times of crisis. Jesus was just showing who’s boss.

A Hermit

His wife should take up Judo and insist on best out of three falls to decide who gets to be boss for the day…

Anderson’s little ritual is just plain weird but it doesn’t actually harm anyone.

The “little ritual” you describe was part of a sermon. A sermon to indoctrinate his parishoners to the idea that this is a healthy relationship. Consider how the young men and boys in the congregation absorb this preaching, and use it to inform their own attitudes toward women and girls. Consider how the young women and girls in the congregation absorb the lesson that they have no personal or physical autonomy.

I do not understand how this can be characterized as harmless. Without a doubt, this woman-as-chattel attitude nourishes our horrible rape culture.

It is not harmless; it is evil, frightening, despicable, and dangerous.

gorgias

Note how he says “I have a good marriage” and not “WE have a good marriage.”

These people and their church have been on the Whackaloon Radar for a couple of years, if memory serves. They are industrial strength fundigelicals. I think he’s done some seriously stupid shit with a gun or got into a scuffle with the border patrol; whatever it was it was enough to get the plug pulled on some security consulting contracts he had on his non-celestial gig.

I guess on the plus side it’s a good thing that Stevieboy is picking up his own wife instead of picking up male hookers, ala Teddy Haggard.

Nemo

For me, Anderson will always be the “pissing against the wall” guy.

Ichthyic

Five bucks says Anderson is lying about carrying his wife around like a sack of potatoes every morning.

anubisprime

Ichthyic @ 29

Five bucks says Anderson is lying

How about five bucks says that he a fucking mentally unstable moron that has not a clue what ‘reasonable behaviour’ actually means!

teawithbertrand

I hadn’t heard of this guy before. I just spent a few minutes on his family blogspot. That was a mistake. A boatload of stupid and crazy there. My heart breaks for this couple’s kids.

Loqi

That’s odd. My boss at work never picks me up to show me that he’s the boss. I guess he’s doing it wrong. Maybe I’ll walk into his office tomorrow and inform him that if he doesn’t pick me up and carry me around for a while, I’m not going to respect him.

leni

Funny how that “I’m bigger than you” argument never extends to pregnant women and their fetuses.

It’s a Male/Female relationship. I’m the man. You’re the woman. I’m gonna pick you up and show you that. And if I ever want you to go somewhere that you don’t wanna go, you know what? I’m just showing you, I have the power to pick you up and take you there.

“I’m bigger than you, I’m stronger than you, I can force you to do whatever I want, and you can’t do anything about it,” said every abuser, ever.

*shudders*

lofgren

Sometimes I pick up my cat and move him around the room. Does that mean that we have a good marriage?

Sometimes I pick up my cat and move him around the room. Does that mean that we have a good marriage?

Depends on how many tooth and claw scars you have.

dingojack

“The wife was seen as an extension of her husband who could no more be punished for abusing her than for abusing his right arm”.

Wouldn’t ‘self-harming’ be a good excuse for 30 days of involuntary observation at the local psych unit?

If I were his wife I’d say: “Ooh you are so big and strong. You;re sooo much the boss of me. Now show how manly you are and carry me the five miles to the mall, I need to do some grocery shopping, then you can run back another 3 miles to pick up the kids (since you’re the boss of them too) from school and carry them the further 4 miles to [insert name of sport] practice (plus their friends and all their gear) and then come back and carry me all the way home, before running back to the sports ground to pick up and return the kids (and their friends, and all their gear) to their respective homes, as parent and in loco parentis, and therefore in charge, you’ll need to constantly assert your dominance on all under your care by carrying them, right?

You’ll do that, right boss-man, to show just how manly and in charge you are?

’cause nothing says ‘I’m in charge’ like being a beast of burden. It was the donkey that was the boss of Jesus as they entered Jerusalem, dontchknow’.

Dingo

neonsequitur

Oh, please, pleasepleaseplease let everyone who follows his advice and hurts themselves trying to pick up their wives decide to lawyer up all at once and file a class action suit blaming this nutter for telling them to do it!

I’m with Quodlibet on this: what he says he does in private is their affair, and not nearly as bad as most of the abusive behaviors I’ve heard of. (The full extent of what he’s REALLY doing is another question.) When he preaches it in his church, however, especially to younger people who probably don’t really understand how to treat each other and have no other reliable source to learn from, it’s doing real harm — to both the boys and the girls.

This is at least as bad as showing kids cheezy porn and telling them it’s how normal couples make love.